Thievery
Structure
Thievery covers lockpicking, pickpocketing, forgery, and other roguish talents.
Thievery pairs with different attributes depending on the task: Agility for snatching a coin from a table; Physique for slipping a card up your sleeve; Intelligence for counting cards or reading a lock. DCs are set by the GM.
Thievery Mastery DC: Thievery mastery level + the tier of the attribute the task uses.
At each mastery level, you choose one discipline you have not already chosen. At Basic, Expert, and Grand Master, you also choose one ability you have not already chosen.
Disciplines
Breaching
Pick locks and disable traps using Intelligence + Thievery vs DC. To disable a trap another character set, the DC is that trap's Detection DC. Picking a lock requires thieves' picks. Without them, you can work a lock with an improvised tool (a sewing needle, a bent nail, the point of a dagger) at Impotence. Your time follows Working Time. You can retry the same lock or trap, but the risk worsens with each failure.
| Trial misses the DC by | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | You fail, and can try again |
| 3–4 | You damage the mechanism: +2 to the DC on a retry |
| 5–6 | You jam it: +4 to the DC on a retry |
| 7 or more | You break the lock or trigger the trap |
Cryptography
Create or decipher codes in written or spoken communication, and decipher non-magical written languages you do not know. Your time follows Working Time.
- Deciphering an unknown script, or a code with no known maker, is an Intelligence + Thievery trial against a DC the GM sets.
- A code you create holds until someone breaks it: a reader rolls an Intelligence trial against your Thievery Mastery DC. Cryptography counters it.
Demimonde
Knowledge of the criminal underworld, its customs, and its coded language. In any settlement, you can locate criminal contacts, black markets, and fences for stolen goods using Intelligence + Thievery vs DC based on settlement size and local law enforcement. You can communicate using thieves' argot, coded language used among criminals to discuss operations; to an outsider, argot is a spoken code, deciphered as in Cryptography. You are proficient in cards, dice, and games of chance, and can cheat at them. A trick that takes only skill, such as counting cards, is a Thievery trial against a DC the GM sets; a trick others might catch, such as slipping a card, lets anyone watching roll a Perception trial against your Thievery Mastery DC. The GM decides what a night of gambling wins or loses.
Escamotage
Sleight of hand, pickpocketing, and palming objects. You can pick pockets, plant items, shoplift, and palm small weapons (kunai, ear daggers). The target rolls a Perception trial against your Thievery Mastery DC. Alertness (Danger Sense) counters Escamotage. The GM may give the target Impotence if it is distracted or unaware, or Dominance if the item is hard to reach or you draw attention. You cannot steal held items or strapped equipment (backpacks, armor), but you can steal purses, pouches, or weapons from scabbards.
Forgery
Imitate handwriting, signatures, and documents using Intelligence + Thievery vs DC based on familiarity with the target's writing, language, and personality. Anyone who examines the forgery closely rolls an Intelligence trial against your Thievery Mastery DC to spot it. Forgery counters Forgery.
Savvy
Street knowledge of the place you are in, as it stands right now: who holds power, who owes whom, which guard looks the other way, and how things actually get done. You can trace where a person has been from sightings, gossip, and rumor, with an Intelligence + Thievery trial against a DC the GM sets. You know how to get around the local authorities in practice, and how manners shift between neighborhoods and social classes.
Abilities
At Basic, Expert, and Grand Master, choose one ability you have not already chosen.
Luck Pool
A number of times per day equal to your Thievery mastery tier, you can declare before a trial that its dice explode. Your uses return at dawn.
Set Trap
During an exploration round (10 minutes), you can set a trap in a space within reach using trap supplies. The trap is single-use and consumed when triggered. When you set the trap, choose one mundane damage type and one condition it inflicts: Restricted, Tainted, Bleeding, or Impaired. The damage type and condition must match the trap's construction (a spiked pit deals Puncturing damage and inflicts Restricted or Bleeding, not Crushing and Impaired). The GM has final say on whether the choices fit the trap's design.
Detection DC: Thievery mastery level + Intelligence tier. A creature that could perceive the trap rolls a Perception trial against this DC. Alertness (Danger Sense) counters Set Trap. On success, the creature notices the trap and can avoid it.
Trigger: When a creature enters the trapped space without detecting it, the trap triggers. The creature takes damage of the chosen type (resistance applies) and must succeed on an attribute trial against the detection DC or suffer the chosen condition at Tier 1. The resistance attribute depends on the condition: Strength for Restricted, Endurance for Tainted and Bleeding, Perception or Endurance for Impaired. A Lethal trap that causes failure by 5 or more advances the condition to Tier 2.
Construction: If the trap setup is complicated (rigging a falling object, concealing a pit), the GM sets a construction DC from the Trial Difficulty Chart. The Thief rolls Intelligence tier die + Thievery mastery die to succeed.
Trap Supplies
Trap supplies are purchased, single-use, and consumed when the trap is set. The tier determines the trap's damage output and is gated by your Thievery mastery level.
| Trap Tier | Description | Damage | Mastery Required | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Ineffective | 2d2 | Unskilled | 1 sp | 2 lbs |
| T2 | Threatening | 2d3 | Untrained | 1 ss | 4 lbs |
| T3 | Painful | 2d4 | Basic | 1 sc | 6 lbs |
| T4 | Injurious | 3d6 | Skilled | 1 gs | 8 lbs |
| T5 | Treacherous | 4d8 | Expert | 2 gs | 12 lbs |
| T6 | Nasty | 5d10 | Master | 4 gs | 16 lbs |
| T7 | Lethal | 6d12 | Grand Master | 8 gs | 20 lbs |
Use Scroll
Attempt to use a spell scroll of any tradition by rolling the scroll's tradition attribute tier die + Thievery mastery die against the scroll's Use DC. You need no knowledge of its Form. On success, you identify the scroll and the spell casts normally. On failure, the spell fails and the scroll is ruined. You cannot coerce success.